Patent document 1 discloses a configuration of lighting equipment for vehicles using a semiconductor light-emitting element in which the semiconductor light-emitting element is disposed so that the position of the maximum luminance part of the luminance distribution thereof should be on the cutoff line without cutting any part of light emitted from the semiconductor light-emitting element. In this configuration, a plurality of minute convexes (or concaves) for enhancing light extraction efficiency are provided on an upper surface (light-emitting surface) of a rectangular semiconductor layer of which longitudinal direction is parallel to the cutoff line. The minute convexes are more densely provided in a region closer to one long side of the rectangular semiconductor layer along the cutoff line among the two long sides of the rectangular semiconductor layer, and more sparsely provided in a region remoter from that long side. That is, density of the minute convexes changes along the direction of the short side of the rectangular semiconductor layer. As a result, light emission amount of the light-emitting surface of the semiconductor light-emitting element becomes larger in a region closer to the end corresponding to the cutoff line, and therefore the semiconductor light-emitting element can be disposed so that the maximum luminance part of the luminance distribution thereof should be on the end corresponding to the cutoff line.
Patent document 2 discloses a lighting equipment for vehicles in which a plurality of semiconductor light-emitting elements are disposed in the shape of a two-dimensional matrix, and lights emitted by the semiconductor light-emitting elements are projected with a lens along directions for which the lights should be irradiated. With such a lighting equipment for vehicles, light projection can be controlled so that the lights are not projected to an oncoming vehicle or the like by detecting position of the oncoming vehicle or the like, and turning off the semiconductor light-emitting elements that project lights to the oncoming vehicle or the like. The light projection can also be controlled so that, after a position of obstacle on a driveway is detected, projection light amount for the direction of the obstacle is increased.